The Grey: gritty, unflinching, merciless. And really, really good. 1993’s Alive and 1997’s The Edge (Haven’t seen them? Watch them. Today.) were hardcore survival movies, to be sure, but The Grey takes it a sobering step further.
If you’ve seen the previews, you know the plot: a plane carrying some oil company workers crashes in frozen Alaskan wastelands, leaving a small group of survivors to battle not only the elements but also a pack of THE SCARIEST WOLVES EVER FEATURED IN FILM (not counting werewolves, of course). They’re big, savage, fearless, and fast. You know they’re like totally CG, but that makes them not one whit less terrifying.
The expertly cast Liam Neeson plays John Ottway, who right away becomes the de facto leader of our not-so-merry band. He calms a dying survivor; he keeps an unscrupulous jackass from robbing a dead guy. (Amazing how said jackass could think of looting at a time when the dangers of below-freezing temps and huge hellbeast wolves should be foremost on his mind.) As the weary men travel along, the movie moves at a slow pace—except for the sudden blitz wolf attacks, that is (I about jumped out of my skin like three times.)—but keeps your attention with funny bits of conversation, harrowing action, and breathtakingly beautiful scenery. And because you’re always wondering who’ll die next. (Note: the black guy dies. I DIDN’T RUIN THAT FOR YOU. The black guy ALWAYS dies.)
Neeson is really carving a niche for himself playing the accidental hero (See: The Grey, Taken, Schindler’s List.); this is my fave of these performances so far. Ottway is a good leader but also a very, very troubled man with a broken heart. The scene when Ottway, at his very wits’ end, screams at God to show him a sign is pretty poignant.
My only complaints are superficial: the wolves look a bit fake at times, and the guys get some pretty bad injuries then are ok like two minutes later. Although I guess you could argue that there’s no way real animals could have worked and that not being dinner for a huge hellbeast wolf would motivate even a mortally wounded person to find his second wind.
STAY AFTER THE CREDITS! I refuse to read anything about a movie before I see it, so I didn’t know to do this, so I had to search high and low to find what I’d missed—and I liked the movie even more after seeing it. (Bless you, Internets.)
No comments:
Post a Comment